Breathing Acid
by FallAway
Summary: AU. Oh, sugar, this isn’t even the beginning of the bad. NB oneshot.


Summary: AU. Oh, sugar, this isn't even the beginning of the bad. N/B oneshot.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own these characters. Trust me.

A/N: Birthday fic for Aleah! She wanted Nathan/Brooke, so Nathan/Brooke is what she's getting. Took me a while to come up with the concept of this, so I hope it turned out alright. Drop me a review and let me know what you think.

--

_Lately I've been wishing I had one desire,_

_Something that would make me never want another_

When she got the call, he wasn't surprised. He'd been waiting for this to happen, for her to leave him in favor of another tour, another high, another chance to follow her dreams. The part that shocked him was her breathy request to come with her.

She'd cried, a little. Almost begged him, if he remembers correctly.

And he had stayed quiet and stared at her.

But then she was crawling over him in their queen-sized, perfectly soft mattress and he was agreeing because this was his _wife_, his _love_, his _everything_. She had giggled against his mouth and promised that she loved him, adopting a playful pout when he refused to say the words back in favor of a kiss.

That was three months ago.

Her kisses had meant more to him, then. Made him feel more, want more, _need_ more from their touch. But then he decided to twist things, a little. Make them more interesting.

Renew the thrall of sex.

So today he's pressed against the wall of his wife's dressing room, the legs of his brother's ex and his wife's best friend wrapped around his waist. He didn't invite her; Haley did. So, really, this is entirely her fault.

(It's easier to blame her when he knows she'll never find out.)

She laughs against his neck and slides back down his body, placing her black-leather-boot-clad-feet firmly on the floor. She grins at him and gives him a quick peck on the cheek before slipping out of the room and back to the side of the stage.

He spends the next five minutes in the bathroom while she congratulates Haley on another incredible performance, and when Haley bounces into her dressing room two minutes later she fails to notice that he doesn't even have his fly zipped yet.

"You were amazing," he whispers, pressing a kiss to her mouth. She hums against him and loops her arms around his neck.

Brooke buries her head in a magazine and pretends not to notice.

--

"See, now this is why you're not supposed to bring the boy toy along on your tours," Brooke grins and winks at the group of guys standing at the bar a few feet away. Haley rolls her eyes.

"This wasn't ever about getting groupies, Brooke."

"Sure it wasn't," Brooke giggles and takes another sip of her drink, locking eyes with Nathan as he makes his way through the crowd toward their table. He gives her a smirk and she flushes, quickly averting her gaze as he presses a kiss to Haley's forehead and hands her another drink.

"Oh my God, I love this song," she announces a moment later. Haley whines that her feet hurt too much to dance again. "Tutorgirl! Hasn't cheerleading done you any good? Come on, get your ass up," Brooke hops off her stool and bounces on her heels impatiently.

"Go dance with Nathan and I'll be there in a minute," Haley responds. Brooke sticks out her bottom lip and when it doesn't do anything to change her friend's mind, she shrugs and eagerly grabs Nathan's hand to drag him into the throng of people on the dance floor of the New York night club they're at.

"Could you have made that any more obvious?"

Brooke rolls her eyes and rolls her hips against his, grinning as she cocks her head to the side and he groans. "Like you're complaining," she whispers. She bites his earlobe and his hands fall to her hips as they relax into the beat of the song, bumping and grinding against each other as they resist the urge to take it any further.

Haley never joins them and proclaims that she's tired when they return to the table. She gives them permission to stay until the club closes and they accept the invitation with feigned expressions of guilt, promising to join her at the hotel in half an hour.

They end up fucking in the women's bathroom and Haley's asleep when they get back.

Brooke crushes her mouth against his and closes the door silently behind her, refusing to let Haley wake up from the hallway lights and ruin this perfect opportunity for a play date. Nathan groans against her mouth and drags her across the hall to her room, falling through the door and landing on the floor in the foyer of the suite, laughing against her mouth while she kicks the door shut with a bang.

Four hours later, Nathan stumbles out of Brooke's room in nothing but his boxers, and he almost breaks the card-key because he's so focused on her mouth.

--

Haley gets invited to an award show and the producers ask her not to bring anyone. She throws a fit and Nathan rolls his eyes at her back as she yells into her phone. He tells her to go and have fun and that they'll have a late dinner when she returns. She pouts at him and he nods his head, so she sighs and promises to be there before slamming her phone shut and throwing it across the room.

He almost feels guilty when she kisses him goodbye, but when he flicks on the television ten minutes later she's kissing some guy on the cheek and grinning at the cameras like everything's fine.

The trip from his room to Brooke's takes him exactly four seconds and she yawns when she opens the door.

"Haley's at an awards show," he leans against the door way. Brooke smiles softly and grabs his hand, tugging him into her room.

"Isn't it convenient how she wasn't allowed to bring a guest?"

"You," he kisses her neck, "Are a very," and then her ear, "Bad girl," he breathes. She giggles against his mouth and he swallows the sound, lifting her up as they stumble toward the bedroom.

"The devil's got nothin' on me," she agrees. Nathan rolls his eyes and she giggles low in his ear, grinding her hips against his when he lands on top of her on the bed.

"You sure you can handle the heat of hell?"

Brooke slaps his shoulder and he laughs against her neck, tracing his tongue across her clavicle in a placating gesture. She sighs and relaxes below him as she runs her fingers through his freshly-spiked hair.

"What is your fetish with gel?"

"Would you rather I look like a slob?"

"Less work for me."

"Whine, whine, whine."

--

"Nathan?" Haley shouts from the doorway, flinging off her heels impatiently. She all but prances into the room and heads across the living room, pausing momentarily to take a look at the city view their suite offers before running the rest of the way to the bedroom. "You will never believe what just …"

She freezes and stares at the bed, heart flying into her throat.

He's not there; the comforter isn't wrinkled; there's no note; his cell phone is lying on the floor. She furrows her brow and her excitement dwindles as she huffs impatiently and leaves the suite again to go complain to Brooke.

She pounds on the door and crosses her arms over her chest in annoyance, looking toward the elevator with an expectant look on her face. Something bangs against the wall in Brooke's room and she frowns, knocking again. Giggles filter through the door and she rolls her eyes when she realizes Brooke has a new toy, sighing as she turns around to take a shower and wait for Nathan.

"Hales, what's up?"

Haley pauses and turns back around, taking in Brooke's tousled hair and rosy cheeks. Her clothes are half on and half off, her shirt unbuttoned and the lazy black material of her bra peeking through the fabric. It interrupts the smooth, creamy pattern of her skin and Haley shakes her head to get rid of the thought.

Brooke only calls her Hales when something is seriously, seriously wrong.

"I was looking for Nathan but you're obviously … preoccupied, so I'll just go wait," Haley laughs and gestures to Brooke's appearance, ignoring the sharp tugging in her stomach.

"I think he said something about going down to get coffee, I don't know. I was a little distracted," Brooke shrugs. Haley laughs and nods her head as she retreats back into her own suite.

Five minutes later, Nathan gets back and she grins when he greets her with a kiss. She runs her fingers through his hair and hums against his mouth.

"Mm, where's all the gel?" she murmurs.

"Took a shower after you left."

She misses the way his voice wavers from the lie and he doesn't notice her frown when he nips at her neck.

--

The bus breaks down in the middle of nowhere, New Jersey, and they spend the night in a crappy hotel room with no insulation. Haley falls asleep early, tired from last night's show, and Nathan slips out of the room not twenty minutes after she does.

Brooke gets restless when he slowly hitches up her skirt and she pushes down on his shoulders for leverage as she jumps up and wraps her legs around his waist. He wraps his arms firmly around her thighs and she tugs at his zipper impatiently, groaning when she takes him inside.

Nathan slams her against the wall and she cries out his name against the cheap, flowered wallpaper, groaning and laughing and gasping. He pushes into her more firmly and her head rocks back with each thrust, slamming against the wall.

She screams his name again when she comes and he kisses her hard before he leaves.

Haley's not in bed when he slips back into their room and he frowns but ignores it in favor of sleep. He flops back on the bed and slips into unconsciousness a minute later, sated and feeling like rubber from his rendezvous next door.

Haley stays on the bus and burns his pictures in a trash can with Brooke's.

--

Brooke doesn't realize that anything's out of the ordinary. Nathan gets a weird feeling every time he watches his_ wife_ interact with his _lover_ (and the terms are no longer as one) but he ignores it in favor of oblivion.

They're all going to hell, he knows that much, but he'll be the first in the hand-basket.

He initiated this; he propositioned Brooke after a traumatic break-up with Lucas, three weeks into the tour. The first time was on a cot in the tour bus when Haley was performing at a mall. And that was supposed to be the end.

But it's been four months and he doesn't think he can stop at this point.

"Somebody got a little play last night, huh? I told you there were hot guys in Jersey."

Brooke widens her eyes and laughs a little shakily, nodding her head in agreement. "Yeah, silly me for not believing you."

"You okay? You look a little pale."

"Fine," Brooke nods and offers a cheerful smile. Haley winks at her and walks away, an extra little bounce in her step today. Brooke stares after her and swallows hard. Nathan tugs on her hand and she disappears into the gas station bathroom with him, forgetting the betrayed look in Haley's eyes while Nathan runs his hands across her skin.

--

He falls asleep in Brooke's room with his head on her stomach and his arms around her waist. The sheet is twisted awkwardly to cover them both, though the air conditioning is on low and it's hot enough to sweat.

Brooke glides her fingers through his hair, unable to sleep in the stifling, sex-scented atmosphere of the room. It's not an unusual occurrence but she hates it all the same, and she misses the click of the card-key as she sighs against the sun.

The door knob twists as she closes her eyes and she laughs against her pillow when she feels another presence in the room.

"Were you planning on telling me? Or did you always plan to let things get this bad?"

She opens her eyes and purposefully glides her nails across Nathan's shoulder blades, grinning at Haley when he shivers from the touch. He doesn't wake, he never does, but he cuddles closer to her under the sheets and she lets out a laugh against her hand.

"Oh, sugar, this isn't even the beginning of bad."

Haley stares at her with her hands around her shoulders, her elbows at an awkward pointed angle from the position. "Like this can get any worse?"

"I'm just the better fuck," Brooke shrugs. "Not like he loves me any more than you."

The door slams shut as Haley flies out of the room and the walls vibrate all around the bed. Brooke sighs and sinks into the mattress further, Nathan's hand curling against her inner thigh as she falls asleep.

--

So she loses it.

She leaves them alone at random times of the day, writing or recording or performing or _lying_ just to avoid the way his hands twitch when they're in a room with Brooke. He doesn't know that she knows because Brooke never told him, and she's not about to let him in on that secret.

And then the trip is about getting groupies.

Groupie, actually. Fuck one and it's all over; let him catch her and everything's done. He'll leave her, Brooke will console him, they'll mend their friendship and life will be great.

But when has she ever gotten a happily ever after?

It's manipulative and bitchy and she's going straight to hell, but she doesn't care at this point. So she dials Brooke's cell phone and grimaces at the background noise of her husband panting and groaning and coming inside her friend while Brooke giggles into the phone and pretends it's entirely normal.

Brooke only says okay when Haley asks for her help and she wants to kill herself for this plan.

She stands on the edge of a bridge that night and gulps as she stares at the water.

Two hours later she steps off stage with a smile on her face and a lilt in her voice as she promises Nathan she'll meet him at the hotel. She slides through the crowd to another dressing room and laughs against the mouth of her opening act's lead singer.

Haley stumbles into her suite that night with her mouth attached to a drummer's. She can't remember his name, doesn't really care to know it, but he's doing some damn good things with his tongue and it's all good (for now).

--

Nathan freezes when he enters the suite that night. He stands at the end of the bed with his fists clenched at his sides and he wants to cry but he can't find the tears. Haley rolls over with a sigh and snuggles further into the guy next to her, her eyelids fluttering.

She opens her eyes and stares at him for a moment before kissing the guy's shoulder and going back to sleep.

(She knew.)

He swallows back a scream and stumbles out of his room, frantically pounding on Brooke's door because he can't get a grip on the key. She opens the door wearing nothing but a towel and she smiles at him until she sees his eyes.

Broken; dark; stormy and gray.

She sighs and lets him in, lets him fuck her because she knows. He knows she does and she's completely involved but he doesn't care because she can touch him and make it all okay and he'll drown in her if that's what it takes.

Haley stops by the room half an hour later and drops her wedding ring on the bed.

Brooke grins at the action and he closes his eyes.

Suddenly it's all pretty fucking clear.

--

They end the tour on a boring note. Boring in the sense of their lives, at least. Haley gets a record deal and sends them packing, no longer in need of a boy or a girl. Brooke hugs her before they catch their flight and Haley promises to call without a second glance at him.

And back in Tree Hill Brooke locks him out of the house.

Because she doesn't want to be with him.

And she never, ever has.

His wish for a normal life with a normal girl is shot to hell with one quick flick of her wrist and a slam of the door. He stares at it and then nods to himself, realizing with a sigh that everything's done.

Everything's done (because he couldn't make up his mind).


End file.
